What’s common between juice, weddings, QR codes? Jihad, if you watch enough TV

Gather around. It’s primetime, where nuance goes to die. Planning a wedding? Cue “Mehandi Jihad”. Scanning a QR code? “QR Jihad”. Down with the flu? “Virus Jihad”. Craving mango juice? “Juice Jihad”. A train derails? “Rail Jihad”.

Don’t ask for evidence of course.

This week, the News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) passed three orders objecting to the casual, catch-all use of the word “jihad” in television broadcasts.

In one case, Zee News was directed to take down a segment that branded a local journalist’s attempt to seek donations during the Sambhal violence, while referring to the victims as “shaheed”, as “QR code jihad”. In another, the channel was asked to remove a show describing a Kanpur man selling non-vegetarian food at a restaurant advertised as vegetarian as “food jihad”. A third order cautioned Times Now Navbharat over a broadcast invoking “thook jihad”.

None of the orders passed on Wednesday invoked a fine.

The complainant in all three cases was Utkarsh Mishra. Along with activist and technie Indrajeet Ghorpade and Matin Mujawar, he had last year submitted a detailed representation to the NBDSA documenting what they described as a growing pattern: the routine branding of everyday events as conspiratorial “jihad”.

The complaint had pointed to 94 instances on television which spread various forms of “jihad conspiracies” between August and December last year with how many views they clocked. These included “Rail Jihad, Biological Jihad, Virus Jihad, Thook Jihad, Love Jihad, Juice Jihad, Food Jihad, Namaz Jihad, Mehandi Jihad, Pan Card Jihad, Khajoor Jihad, Land Jihad, Flood Jihad, Tezaab Jihad, Urine Jihad, Mandir Jihad, Note Jihad, Burqa Jihad, Hotel Jihad, Masjid Jihad, Rape Jihad, Labour Jihad, and QR Jihad”. 

It was not even an exhaustive list, as the complaint had noted then while naming at least six news channels. 

The complaint also referred to a previous order by NBDSA which had said the term “love jihad” must be used with “great introspection as religious stereotyping amounts to violation of the Code of Ethics and can corrode the secular fabric of the country”. It had added that such reportage “cause irreparable harm to a community and create religious intolerance or disharmony” and violated the Code of Ethics and Broadcasting Standards.

The complaint said that it’s “important to note that these broadcasts were aired during elections in four states, a period when several ministers were actively promoting such conspiracy theories. The failure to highlight and emphasise the political origins of these claims, coupled with their promotion as factual, suggests that the content was selectively framed to advance the agenda of specific interest groups. These groups include extremist pro-Hindutva organisations and conspiracy theories endorsed by BJP leaders.”

From Manikarnika Ghat to the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, Banaras is being reshaped in the name of development. Our new NL Sena asks who pays the price. Power it here.